Raiders bench QB and win
Bruce Gradkowski replaced Jason Campbell at halftime and led the Raiders to a much-needed comeback win over the St. Louis Rams.
Trailing 7-3 at the half, Raiders coach Tom Cable benched Jason Campbell, who was 8/15 for 87 yards and an interception, in favour of journeyman quarterback Gradkowski.
Gradkowski came into the game and quarterbacked the Raiders on three scoring drives to win a close one at home, 16-14. Gradkowski found Louis Murphy for a four-yard touchdown, and Sebastian Janikowski kicked three field-goals in the win.
"They called my number and I just said I'm just going to do my thing, go out and have fun," Gradkowski said. "We did that the second half. It was exciting to get a win. We're just looking forward to moving on."
Who the Raiders will move on with, however, isn't clear, with Cable saying he hasn't yet made a decision on who his week three starter will be.
What is clear is who will be standing just behind that starter, running back Darren McFadden. Much maligned after being fourth overall by the Raiders in 2008, McFadden could finally be becoming the back Al Davis thought he was getting.
McFadden ran wild, to the tune of 145 yards on 30 carries, to pace the Raiders to victory. This, after running for 95 yards on just 18 carries, in week one.
On the other sideline, Sam Bradford threw two touchdown passes, both to Mark Clayton, but struggled to move the ball for much of the second half.
"In this football league, you have to play a full game," Bradford said. "You can't come out and play a half and expect to win. I felt like as an offense, we played good in the first half. You'd like to have more points than seven, but we got into a rhythm
and I think everything was rolling smooth. Then we came out very flat in the second half."
Bradford's second touchdown pass, just 47 seconds after the Rams picked off Gradkowski, made it 16-14 with just over three minutes to play.
The Rams were unable to complete the comeback, however, as the Raiders successfully ran out the remaining time, in part thanks to an unnecessary roughing the passer call on Fred Robbins.
"You have to play a little bit smarter," Robbins said. "We were killing ourselves. We had a few penalties on a few big drives, and it hurt us."
Tags: